


Lost and Found

by AGayBee



Category: Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Eventual relationship, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers, Trauma, i hope u like robo vocab bc its all i know apparently, im not joking when i say slow i mean ungodly s l o w, just.... a lot of robot vocabulary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2019-11-01 04:22:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17860217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AGayBee/pseuds/AGayBee
Summary: Swindle crash-lands on a remote, organic planet with no easy means of escape. Oddly enough, he's not the only one stranded here.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> takes place shortly after the events of 'decepticon air'

No bot liked to come back online to their systems alerting them of having been in stasis for a solarcycle and that they were in some shape or form damaged. Swindle guessed it was his lucky day because that was exactly what he woke up to. For a moment, he struggled to figure out why he’d been in stasis in the first place, but once he his optics came online, he put the pieces together: his ship had crash-landed.

Swindle knew that he had needed to get rid of the Autobot shuttle he had stolen as soon as possible. He  _also_ knew that traveling in it all the way back to his ship was risky-- but he had thought he could make it. Unfortunately, it seemed that his optimism had gotten the better of him. His memory banks quickly filled in the gaps of what had happened; the ship’s systems had randomly offlined without any warning and he suddenly had no control over the ship’s course. The Autobots must’ve figured out that he had stolen the pod and had some failsafe to remotely turn off the vessel, thus crash-landing him on this planet that he must’ve been sucked into the orbit of. He was lucky to be online, he guessed.

Swindle finally tried to sit up but quickly realized he couldn’t. Part of the ship had caved in and was crushing both of his pedes. That explained the alert screaming at him that there was damage to his frame. He couldn’t feel any extreme pain, which at least meant his pedes weren’t completely mashed to pieces but he was still stuck and probably wounded. He muttered a few swears as he tried to push the piece of rubble off of himself but to no avail. Swindle wasn’t exactly a strong mech by any means and the piece of the ship on him was heavy.

Right as he paused his attempt to free himself, Swindle swore he heard something. He turned his helm to see that half of the ship was gone-- it most likely got burnt off when he went through the atmosphere-- baring him to the rest of the world. He wasn’t exactly sure what planet he was on, but it wasn’t out of the question that it had some native wildlife. He supposed that the rustling he had heard must’ve been just that: some harmless fauna.

But Swindle heard it  _again_ and began to grow worried. Something was right outside the ship, most likely investigating it. Whatever it was, it was  _noisy._ Clicking, chirping, buzzing-- it sounded organic. Swindle usually wouldn’t worry about some clueless animal taking interest in him and the ship, but considering his current situation, he would like to at least be on his stabilizing servos if he was about to encounter something.

Fortunately, the stress of the situation gave Swindle just enough adrenaline to get the strength to push the debris off of himself. He jumped up, looking forward to being able to stand, but realized he had been too hopeful about not receiving too much damage. His left pede completely gave out underneath him, sending him straight back onto the floor. He definitely could feel the pain in it now after having put weight on it. Swindle audibly winced and couldn’t help but spend a moment to just lay there in pain.

His spark lurched when he realized that the noises he had been hearing outside his ship were now right in front of him, no more than a few pede-steps away.

Swindle looked up and tried to remain calm as he saw the looming figure above him. The creature was, at the very least, twice Swindle’s size (though, to be fair, most bots he met were) and clearly organic in some shape or form. Swindle relaxed the littlest bit as he recognized the all too familiar Decepticon insignia on their chest. That probably meant that this creature was at least partially Cybertronian and in the same faction as himself. That was good. Decepticons tended to show mercy to their fellow ‘cons… usually.

“Um.” Swindle reset his vocal synthesizer and offered his intruder a smile. “Hey… there.”

The techno-organic flinched as Swindle spoke and pulled itself away from him. Swindle scrambled to sit up and quickly exclaimed, “Whoa, wait! It’s okay! I’m not going to hurt you.”

The green creature snorted. “Crash-bot couldn’t hurt Waspinator even if he wanted to. Crash-bot is too tiny to hurt Waspinator.”

“Crash-bot?” Swindle repeated and narrowed his optics. “ _Oh--_ because my ship _crashed_ here! Ha, that’s… that’s clever.”

Swindle had quickly made up his mind on how he wanted to approach this situation. Pissing off this techno-organic-- _Waspinator_ was his name, Swindle guessed-- was the last thing he wanted to do. Playing it cool and friendly sounded like his best bet for now. Maybe he could try to get the creature to trust him and maybe help him out a bit… or, at the very least, not get offlined. Being online was nice.

“Uh, anyway…” Swindle nervously chuckled. “You wouldn’t happen to know where I am, would you? Is this… _your_ planet, or something?”

Waspinator just stared at him for a second before turning his helm away.

“This isn’t Waspinator’s planet,” he murmured. “Waspinator has no idea where Waspinator is.”

“Well, we’re both in the same boat, then!” Swindle chirped. “Maybe we can help each other out!”

Waspinator’s helm swung back around to face Swindle when he heard that. His optics narrowed and he rose to his full height, revealing how big he actually was. Yeah, Swindle was _definitely_ sure he didn’t want to piss him off.

“Waspinator doesn’t need help from _anyone_ ,” he hissed. “ _Especially_ Crash-bot.”

“Well, maybe  _you_ don’t but… _I_ could use some help.” Swindle deciding sucking up was the best approach to the situation at servo currently. Maybe he could make Waspinator feel bad for him. He used a soft, timid voice instead of his usual charismatic tone. “My ship’s damaged so I can’t get off this planet and, being that I’m wounded, repairing it won’t be easy. Maybe, if you would feel generous enough to, you could help out your fellow Decepticon?”

“Waspinator is _not_ a Decepticon!” the techno-organic snapped.

Swindle raised an optic-ridge. “Well, that symbol on your chest begs to differ.”

Waspinator glanced down at his insignia before letting out a loud snarl. Swindle flinched as the other suddenly transformed into his organic mode and angrily flew away. He was long gone by the time Swindle had thought to call out for him. He sighed.

“Slaggit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi hello!! welcome to my new multi-chapter fic!!!! its been a while!!!!  
> so im sure what a lot of ppl are thinking is "hey? swindle and wasp? what the fuck?" and i agree! what The fuck!  
> ill try to keep this as short and sweet as possible but i used to be in the tfa fandom many many MANY moons ago back when i had a real shit taste in fanfics (bc i was young dumb and didnt know any better) and i happened to read a swin/wasp fanfic (theres literally like only one fun fact)! and i really enjoyed it at the time but now i think its uhhh kind of shit! kind of really problematic! but i still really enjoyed the pairing and the idea around the two and just had a lot of headcanons and thoughts and feelings about these goobers so i wrote a fic about them! bc what else are u gonna do when u cant stop thinking about two idiots falling in love!  
> ANYWAYS i dont have a set schedule yet for this nor am i totally finished writing the whole thing, but its planned out and i have a good chunk of chapters written, so we will see how this goes! ty for taking interest and i hope u stay around for more!  
> p.s. i kind of need a beta reader? just for grammar stuff and making sure im coherent! let me know if youre interested!  
> p.p.s. yes i am aware that the title is also a title for a tfa episode thats sort of the joke! but its not really a joke since its not funny! i dont know!


	2. Chapter 2

Swindle’s systems were still strained from having crashed and were desperate to recover, so after Waspinator had left, he had slipped back into stasis. After recharging into the next day, he attempted to stand up again to see how much pressure he could put on his pede. Unfortunately, he could barely put any weight on it at all. At this point, Swindle was worried he was going to have to get the thing amputated and replaced. It wasn’t that he couldn’t  _ afford  _ to do that, he just  _ really  _ didn’t want to. He wasn’t trying to go for Lockdown’s mismatched aesthetic. Swindle would much rather live the rest of his function with one pede than look like his bounty hunting friend.

Oddly enough, right as Swindle had sat down after another attempt to test the durability of his pede, Waspinator came back. He was a good distance Swindle had spotted him out of the corner of his optic. When their gazes met, Waspinator immediately transformed into his organic mode and flew off. Swindle shrugged off the whole thing and didn’t think much of it.

After another solarcycle of resting and trying to recover, Swindle took a closer look at his pede. He was no medic, but he assumed it had been dislocated. He thought that if he could manage to twist it back into place that it might heal a bit on its own. He tried doing so, but it was difficult considering how much pain it caused him, as well as his lack of strength. He gave up after a few attempts and leaned back, frustrated.

Swindle tensed up as he heard a familiar chittering. He turned his helm and, as expected, saw Waspinator lurking outside his ship. Swindle narrowed his optics.

“Can I  _ help _ you?” he snapped.

Waspinator snorted-- and then left. Swindle rolled his optics and went back to trying to fix his pede to no avail.

Another solarcycle passed and Swindle had given up on tending to his pede. Instead, he decided to look around the vessel to see what had survived the impact, what would need some maintenance, and what had been completely destroyed. It was a bit hard to judge since Swindle didn’t exactly have any experience with ship mechanics-- not to mention, he was having to crawl around like a helpless newspark.

“For a bot who claims to be so cultured, why do I know  _ nothing  _ about my own species’ technology?” Swindle grumbled to himself, leaning back and rubbing at his optics. “I know almost every planet in every nearby solar system but I can’t even tell if something Cybertronian is  _ broken _ . Idiot…”

Swindle sighed as he heard something land behind him. He didn’t even bother to look because he knew exactly who it was.

“What brings you here today, my buggy friend?” Swindle bitterly greeted. “I mean buggy as in you’re a bug  _ and _ you  _ bug _ me.”

“Crash-bot is still here.”

Swindle perked up and actually bothered to look back at him. He had finally said something after days of just stalking around the ship. That was…  _ interesting  _ but undeniably concerning.

“Yeah. I am,” Swindle cautiously replied. “What about it?”

“Waspinator thought Crash-bot would be gone by now,” the techno-organic murmured, oddly calm.

“Well, take a good, long look at my ship, my dear Waspinator.” Swindle gestured to the entirety of his ship before dramatically crossing his arms. “I’m not going  _ anywhere _ for a while. Oh, and my pede also adds to that problem. Sorry if any of that  _ bugs  _ you. Trust me, I don’t want to be on this planet any more than you want me here.”

“Waspinator doesn’t  _ care _ ,” he hissed, crawling a bit further inside the ship.

Swindle stiffened as the techno-organic approached him, expecting Waspinator to finally attack him. Surprisingly, he didn’t; they just sat there in silence, staring at each other. It was the closest Waspinator had ever been to him. Swindle usually wasn’t afraid of big bots-- being a bot of his stature  _ and _ a Decepticon made him familiar with large height differences-- but he had no idea what Waspinator’s intentions were. He didn’t trust the techno-organic being so close to him, especially since Swindle was pretty much helpless.

“Crash-bot said he needed help,” Waspinator simply said. “What kind of help?”

Swindle narrowed his optics, unsure of his angle, but answered anyway. “Uh… I guess just an extra pair of servos to get everything up and running would be nice… or, I guess  _ two _ pairs of servos, in your case.”

Waspinator glanced down at his second set of servos and then back up at Swindle, presumably frowning (Swindle couldn’t exactly tell with those mandibles of his). The smaller bot awkwardly chuckled. “Okay, I’ll admit, that one was pretty bad.”

Waspinator grunted. There was another awkward moment of silence. Swindle mentally kicked himself for having made such a stupid joke so soon. He should have gauged the situation better, but if he was being honest, he was a  _ little  _ freaked out right now. Despite his range of customers and experiences over his lifetime of being an arms dealer, this wasn’t exactly a situation he was used to, let alone, equipped to handle. Maybe if he wasn’t wounded and stranded in the middle of nowhere he’d be able to have the confidence to approach this dilemma better.

“If Waspinator helps Crash-bot, will Crash-bot help Waspinator?” Though worded like a question, it sounded much more like a demand.

“Uh, it depends on what you want, but probably!” Swindle replied, lighting up at the idea of bargaining. “I’m the kind of mech who knows a lot of important bots and has all kinds of connections. I’m sure I could hook you up with whatever your little techno-organic spark desires!”

“Can Crash-bot take Waspinator somewhere?”

Swindle’s intake hung open for a klik. “I… that’s a lot less ambitious than I imagined, but… sure, why not!”

He was tempted to offer Waspinator a thousand more things that would be a more worthwhile investment but quickly stopped himself. The less effort he had to go through to pay back Waspinator, the better. Plus, if it was something as simple as just giving Waspinator a ride somewhere, maybe he could turn that into something more…  _ beneficial _ for himself. He could already think of a few places that’d pay a hefty sum for a creature like Waspinator. Swindle hadn’t ever been too interested in that kind of stuff before, but a profit was a profit. He’d probably need some extra cash to get his stupid pede properly fixed once he was off this mudball of a planet.

“Where to, if you don’t mind me asking?” he asked as he snapped out of his thoughts.

Waspinator hesitated but eventually replied, “Earth.”

“Well, what a happy coincidence!” Swindle exclaimed, making Waspinator flinch and tense up. “That’s where I’m already planning to head to! My ship-- my  _ actual _ ship, not this escape pod-- is parked there. I, unfortunately, got, uh… _ separated  _ from it.”

Waspinator hummed in acknowledgment. Silence fell over the two once more.

“What makes you want to go there?” Swindle asked. “Is it your vacation spot? Got some friends there or something?”

“Not friends,” Waspinator growled. “Enemies.”

Swindle smirked. He remembered how many Autobots were crawling around on that planet and couldn’t help but assume Waspinator was talking about them. Maybe they had common enemies-- Swindle liked that idea. Maybe he would hold true to his word after all and take Waspinator to Earth if only to see him rip apart those Autobots who were responsible for his one-way ticket to the stockades.

Waspinator crawled over to one of the control panels and began to inspect it. Swindle watched him with suspicion, ready to tell him to not touch anything if any of his servos got close to the buttons.

“What’s Crash-bot’s plan?” he asked as he continued to look at the systems.

“I’m trying to see what’s still salvageable and what’s completely broken, and then I’m going to figure out a course of action from there,” Swindle explained, resting his helm in his servo. “I’d still be working on it but I have no idea what I’m doing… you wouldn’t happen to know anything about fixing ships, would you?”

Waspinator shook his helm. Swindle frowned.

The larger bot then turned to look over Swindle for a moment. He then crawled over to him. He was almost touching Swindle now, which beat his previous record of how close he had been. Swindle watched as Waspinator’s gaze fell onto his wounded pede.

“What is Crash-bot going to do about Crash-bot’s pede?” he asked.

“I’m not exactly a medic-- and I’m assuming you aren’t, either-- so, I’m not really sure,” Swindle reluctantly admitted. “I was trying to twist it back into place but that’s proven a more difficult task than I thought it would be.”

Waspinator leaned a little closer to inspect Swindle’s pede further. He glanced back up at him. “Waspinator could probably twist it back… if Crash-bot is okay with Waspinator helping.”

Swindle grimaced. As much as he wanted his pede to heal, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to put this brute in charge of twisting it back in place. Considering how big Waspinator was, and his seemingly less than impressive intelligence, it wasn’t out of the question that the techno-organic might just break it even more. But, Swindle was desperate, as much as he hated to admit it. He needed to try to do something about his pede, and if it meant letting this complete stranger snap it back into place, so be it… he guessed.

“Okay, but be careful, alright?” Swindle cautioned, pointing a digit at him. “I know how you big bots think you know your strength, but  _ actually try _ to keep it in check, got it?”

Waspinator gave him a nod of acknowledgment before placing his main set of servos on Swindle’s pede. Their gazes met for a moment before the techno-organic looked back at the stabilizing servo in his grasp. He adjusted his digits once more, appearing to be thinking about what he was going to do. Swindle stared at him and nervously swallowed. He had expected Waspinator’s servos to feel more organic than they did. They actually didn’t feel that weird and seemed more Cybertronian than fleshy, but maybe there were other places on his body that felt more--

Swindle let out a humiliatingly high-pitched shriek when Waspinator twisted his pede, which thankfully drowned out the sound of the limb cracking. He yanked his leg away from the other and spat out every curse he knew along with a good servoful of static. Waspinator jumped back, his armor bristling with fear.

“ _ Geez _ , give a bot some warning!” Swindle exclaimed, hugging his leg. “I was expecting you to at least count or something!”

“If Crash-bot knew when Waspinator was going to twist Crash-bot’s pede, it would’ve hurt more,” Waspinator spat. He paused for a moment and then turned his helm away. “Sorry.”

Swindle gritted his denta and then finally let his pede go. He inspected it closely before trying to move it, and wincing when he did.

“It hurts but I think you  _ did _ snap it back into place,” he admitted, looking at it again. “Hopefully it’ll feel better in a bit. Um… thanks, I guess. Sorry if I scared you.”

“S’alright,” Waspinator murmured and shrugged. He looked away from him again.

Swindle slowly worked his way from sitting up to laying down on the floor of the ship. He groaned and very carefully settled down into a comfortable position that suited his aching pede.

“Well, since we don’t exactly have anything that’s going to make the pain stop, I’m going to recharge it off,” he said. “Hope you don’t mind.”

“Waspinator doesn’t mind.”

Swindle rested his helm on his arms as a makeshift pillow. He turned off his optics. “Don’t try to kill me while I’m ‘charging, okay? And don’t destroy the ship either. I’d really appreciate that.”

Waspinator made a noise of acknowledgment. Swindle would’ve been more worried about having a strange bot hanging around him while he was recharging, but Waspinator had just offered to fix his pede and didn’t seem like too much of a threat anymore. Either way, Swindle was too exhausted and in pain to care and easily slipped into stasis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey again!  
> for now im going to try to update weekly, but still no promises on how consistent that will be! but ill definitely try my hardest.  
> forgot to plug this in the last a/n but my tumblr is http://drygabe.tumblr.com/! so if you ever feel like chatting or keeping up with me, thats the place to check me out! thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Waking up to find that the stranger you have suddenly allied yourself with is missing is not exactly a comforting thing. At first, Swindle thought that Waspinator had just gone out to get something, but for the life of him, Swindle couldn’t begin to think of what it could be. The more that Waspinator was gone, the more Swindle began to worry that the techno-organic had changed his mind. Not that it mattered to Swindle that much, but he’d feel a lot safer if the bot he was sharing this planet with was a bot who kept his word.

For once, Swindle actually felt relief when he heard the familiar sound of Waspinator transforming and approaching the ship. He ducked inside and immediately made optic-contact with Swindle.

“Crash-bot is awake,” Waspinator commented. “Good. Crash-bot was in stasis forever.”

“Yeah, having your pede snapped back into place can kind of take a lot out of a bot,” Swindle muttered and rolled his optics.

He was sitting up against the wall as he watched Waspinator crawl further inside the ship. He had to crouch down a bit to actually fit inside. This pod was meant to cater to Autobot-sized bots, and Waspinator was bigger than even the average Decepticon.

Speaking of Decepticons, after taking another full look at Waspinator again, he noticed something interesting: Waspinator had tried to scratch off his insignia. He could still see a bit of purple underneath the scratch marks, but it gave Swindle a clear idea of how he felt about being a Decepticon. Swindle would’ve asked about it if he weren’t so afraid of being scraped up like the insignia.

“Waspinator got energon.” He backed up his claim by dropping a few shards of energon crystals at Swindle’s pedes. The smaller bot eagerly sat up to inspect the crystals. “Thought Crash-bot might be hungry. Crash-bot will need more fuel if Crash-bot is going to heal.”

“Oh, wow-- uh, thanks!” Swindle chirped, enthusiastically gathering the pieces into his servo. He would’ve preferred liquified energon but he knew he was in no place to be picky. He took a bite and experimentally chewed it for a moment before throwing away any cautions he had about the energon and chowing down.

“While Crash-bot was recharging--”

“You know, if we’re going to be partners, maybe you should call me by my real name instead of ‘Crash-bot’,” the grounder interrupted, intake still full of energon. “My name’s Swindle. I know I never really properly introduced myself before, so that’s my name. It’s nice to meet you.”

Waspinator stared at him for a solid klik before looking away.

“While Crash-bot was recharging, Waspinator looked at controls,” he continued. Swindle narrowed his optics. Did he really just--? “Waspinator isn’t a mechanic-bot, but communications seem least broken.”

Swindle opened his intake to correct Waspinator on his name but realized it would be a waste of effort. He very carefully stood up and limped his way over to the communications system to look for himself. It did seem a bit faulty, but compared to everything else, it at least seemed fixable. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t looked at it before.

“Crash-bot said he knew bots, right?” Waspinator said, catching his attention once more. Swindle nodded. “Rest of Crash-bot’s ship is too broken to fix, but if Crash-bot can get communications working, Crash-bot can get some bot to come and save Waspinator and Crash-bot.”

Swindle blinked. He restrained himself from making a comment on it out loud, but that was a rather… perceptive thing to come from Waspinator. The techno-organic seemed so simple-minded that it was odd to hear something that resembled intelligence coming from him. Maybe he had been smarter at some point.

“Well, I  _ do  _ think this is probably going to be the easiest thing to fix compared to everything else,” Swindle murmured, poking at a few things. “That’s not a bad idea! Not a bad idea at  _ all _ , Waspin-- I’m sorry, can I just call you Wasp? ‘Waspinator’ is just kind of a--”

“ _ No. _ ”

Swindle was surprised at the very quick and stern reply. He looked Waspinator in the optics. He seemed rather serious.

“Can I ask…  _ why  _ I can’t call you Wasp?” Swindle cautiously questioned.

Waspinator tensed up. For a moment, Swindle thought he was going to storm off again. For once, though, Waspinator didn’t leave and relaxed instead.

“Waspinator  _ used _ to be Wasp,” he murmured, staring off. “But Wasp turned into Waspinator. Waspinator is Waspinator now. Wasp doesn’t exist anymore.”

“ _ Oh!  _ Wasp was your  _ old  _ designation,” Swindle exclaimed once he finally pieced together what Waspinator had said. “That’s understandable. I know that some bots get sensitive with that kind of stuff, especially defectors--”

“Waspinator didn’t defect.”

“I didn’t say  _ you _ were a defector but thanks for the information. I’ll put that in my mental file of ‘Random Facts I Know About the Techno-organic I’m Partnering With’,” Swindle sneered, tapping the side of his helm. Waspinator gave him no reaction. “So… what  _ is _ your story then? You aren’t an Autobot, and you clearly don’t want to be a Decepticon… so you’re a neutral?”

Waspinator glanced down at his scratched-off insignia. “Waspinator doesn’t know anymore. None of Crash-bot’s business, either.”

“Hey, you can’t blame me for being curious!” Swindle exclaimed, throwing up his servos defensively. “I just thought that if we were going to work together, we could get to know each other a bit, you know?”

“Crash-bot should just focus on fixing ship for now,” the techno-organic grumbled as he settled down on the floor a few pede steps away from Swindle and the communications system. “Crash-bot doesn’t need to worry about Waspinator  _ or  _ Waspinator’s past.”

“Okay, okay. I get it! You don’t want to talk about your past,” Swindle said, shrugging. “I’ve never really understood why some bots are so defensive about that kind of stuff but to each their own, I guess.”

Swindle sat down in front of the communications system and pried open the panel that showed the more intricate systems. It was a mess of wires and other sensitive parts that Swindle wasn't looking forward to messing with but reluctantly begun to investigate it further.

“So, if we can’t talk about you, can we talk about me, then?”

“No.”

Swindle couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “You aren’t very friendly, are you, Bitter-bot?”

Waspinator’s head shot up. “ _ What _ did Crash-bot just call Waspinator?”

“Bitter-bot!” Swindle chirped. “I think it’s only fair that if you’re going to call me Crash-bot instead of my actual name, that I should be able to call you  _ Bitter-bot  _ instead of _ your  _ actual name! Plus, it’s fitting! You’re a bitter,  _ bitter  _ bot!”

“Waspinator just doesn’t like other bots,” he snapped. “Waspinator doesn’t trust them.”

Swindle rested his helm in his servo. “Well, you don’t have any reason to not trust  _ me _ .”

“Waspinator has no reason  _ to  _ trust Crash-bot, either,” Waspinator grumbled. Swindle’s intake drew into a straight line. He supposed that was true. “Everyone just hates Waspinator--  _ hurts  _ Waspinator. Waspinator is tired of it. Waspinator doesn’t want anything to do with anyone anymore. Waspinator only cares about  _ Waspinator _ .”

Swindle hesitated. Now  _ there _ was something about Waspinator’s past. It was vague but it gave Swindle at least a faint idea of what the techno-organic had been through. He frowned. Swindle may be a sleazy-- and at times downright selfish-- bot, but this didn’t really seem… right. His morals tended to flip-flop depending on the situation and the bot he was dealing with, but this time around they screamed that taking advantage of this poor brute was wrong. He’d gone back and forth between if he was going to fulfill Waspinator’s request once they left or not, but now he was leaning more towards staying true to his word. It sounded more beneficial to him in the long term-- he  _ could  _ get Waspinator to kill those Autobots for him, after all-- and maybe he wouldn’t be plagued by any guilt of taking advantage of him afterward. Having someone out there that trusted him and considered him an ally was much better than an enemy and another reason for Swindle to watch his back, as well.

“I don’t hate you and I’m not going to hurt you,” Swindle admitted, his voice genuine. “I don’t have any reason to. I just want to get off this planet, and I don’t mind some company along the way.”

Waspinator didn’t reply. Swindle wasn’t sure if it was because he was officially done with talking with him for the night or if it was because he finally slipped into recharge. He just shrugged and went back to working on the systems, abandoned with his own thoughts for the rest of the evening.


	4. Chapter 4

Waspinator was still pretty distant despite Swindle’s few and far attempts to get to know him better. He didn’t say a whole lot and definitely didn’t want much to do with Swindle. It wasn’t that Swindle was desperate to form a bond with him or anything, but he was a social bot. He just wanted company-- company that would at least _ talk _ with him.

Swindle took long breaks between attempts to fix the communications system. He got sick of being shocked by loose wires and would get generally frustrated. He had made several mental notes while working, the two most important ones being to put more useful supplies in his storage dimension and to learn how to fix ships once they got off this Allspark-forsaken planet.

Waspinator always did one of two things while Swindle worked: recharged in the ship or left to do… well, Swindle wasn’t sure. He brought back energon crystals sometimes, which was nice, but there were other times when he came back empty-servoed, leaving Swindle to believe he had just been wandering around. Swindle wished Waspinator could be more useful but supposed there was nothing else he could really do. He  _ had  _ popped Swindle’s pede back in place-- which was starting to feel a lot better-- and fixing the communications system had been his idea and, sure, he did bring home energon for the both of them-- but still, Swindle was a bit annoyed. He had hoped this alliance would have benefitted him more, but he was in too deep to rid himself of the other now.

Swindle had been taking another break from working on the communications system when Waspinator came back. Swindle immediately stood up, still remaining careful to not put too much pressure on his pede. It felt better, but not perfect, and Swindle wasn’t looking to worsen it anymore.

“I have a request,” he simply said.

Waspinator stiffened and narrowed his optics.

“Oh, relax! It’s not a big deal,” Swindle chirped, putting a servo on his hip. “You get to go out all the time, but _ I  _ don’t and I’m going a little stir-crazy. So, how about you work on the systems for a little bit and I get to go out on a little drive? Sound fair?”

Waspinator considered the proposition for a moment before finally calming down. “Waspinator guesses so.”

Swindle lit up and grinned. “Great!”

He excitedly passed Waspinator to exit the ship. “I won’t be gone long. Don’t break anything, alright? Thanks-- see you later!”

Swindle didn’t even wait for a reply before going outside and transforming into his vehicle mode. His pede gave him a bit of trouble, but not enough to stop him from immediately driving away and out into the unfamiliar planet. He wasn’t all too worried about getting lost, which maybe he should have, but Swindle was just desperate to get away.

Staying in one form for a prolonged period of time made most bots’ joints ache; being able to actually change shape and move was, to say the very least, nice. It had been a while since he’d been able to get this kind of freedom, and Swindle had missed it. Being trapped in his alt-mode back on earth had sucked, which was why he had stayed in root-mode for so long. He forgot that there could be a balance. The scenery was nice, the dirt under his tires felt good, and being out of that sad excuse of a ship felt amazing. Swindle was content.

After driving for a good few kliks, he stopped and transformed back. He was at the edge of a body of water. The setting sun reflected on the tiny ripples in the water. Swindle took in the sight and the fresh air. As much as he hated being stuck on this stupid planet, he had to admit it was pretty. He stretched his arms as he continued to stare at the view.

To his dismay, Swindle heard something behind him. Before he could turn his helm, his intruder spoke.

“Well, you’re about the last bot I expected to find on this planet.”

Swindle was-- to say the  _ very  _ least-- surprised by who the voice belonged to, but he supposed there could’ve been worse bots that he could run into in the middle of nowhere.

“I could say the same to you, Blackarachnia,” Swindle replied as he turned to face her. She gave him a small smirk. “My, it has been a while _ ,  _ hasn’t it? Did Megatron finally kick you off the  _ Nemesis _ ?”

“Oh, you’d like that, wouldn't you? Sorry to disappoint, but it’s a lot less dramatic than that. Starscream crashed the ship after Megatron went offline. Lugnut, Blitzwing, and I were smart enough to get off before he did,” she casually explained, crossing her arms. “But according to what I’ve heard, Megatron apparently isn’t offline?”

“Honestly, who knows anymore?” Swindle admitted with a shrug. “I gave up trying to figure out what was happening after Megatron issued a bounty for Starscream-- and then emphasized the fact that he wanted the _ real  _ one. I’m not entirely fond of the implication that there are  _ multiple  _ Starscreams.”

Blackarachnia genuinely laughed. “No wonder you were Megatron’s favorite arms dealer! You’re a lot more enjoyable to be around than most other ‘cons. Why haven’t we ever met more formally until now?”

“What can I say? I love my work! Unless you’ve ever been looking to buy a mod or a weapon, I’d have no business in talking to you,” he replied.

“Did your work bring you here?” she asked.

Swindle paused. “Sort of.”

“I’m guessing you were in the ship that I saw crash here a while ago?” she asked. He nodded. “I would’ve come visited sooner if I knew it was you… and if it hadn’t been for that beast guarding his territory.”

Swindle perked up. “You wouldn’t happen to be talking about Waspinator, would you?”

“Yeah.” Blackarachnia’s charisma disappeared and was replaced with suspicion. “You’ve met?”

“I guess you could say that,” Swindle said and shrugged. “Is he a friend of yours?”

She scoffed. “Not exactly. We both ended up here a while ago. That processor-less brute tried to kill me and then ran off and established his own little territory. He’s pretty defensive about it.”

Waspinator had been somewhat aggressive with Swindle when he first crashed landed, but Swindle couldn’t really recall it being over him encroaching on Waspinator’s “territory”. In fact, he had easily let down his guard around Swindle once he realized he wasn’t a threat to his personal safety. Waspinator had  _ never  _ even mentioned anything about “his territory”. Maybe his problem wasn’t with protecting his domain but was with Blackarachnia herself. The techno-organic wasn’t inherently aggressive. He just seemed paranoid. He probably had good reasons to not trust Blackarachnia-- possibly personal ones. Waspinator had mentioned bots who had hurt him, after all. That made Swindle suspicious.

“So, I’m assuming you’re trying to get off this planet now, right?” Blackarachnia said, snapping Swindle out of his thoughts. “I doubt your ship faired well with that impact-- even if by some miracle it had, you wouldn’t be here right now-- so I bet you need to get it repaired. I’m no mechanic, but I know a thing or two about ships and could probably get it up and running in a few solarcycles.”

“You know, I appreciate the offer _but_ … I’m good.” Swindle stepped back a bit. “I got everything under control. No need to worry about lil’ ole’ me.”  
Blackarachnia grunted and narrowed her optics. “You’re in cahoots with Waspinator, aren’t you?”

Swindle scoffed. “Even if I was, why should I tell you and-- more importantly-- why does it  _ matter  _ to you? I’m just a simple businessmech trying to get off this planet by any means necessary. A little…  _ help _ from a certain someone shouldn’t bother you--  _ unless  _ you have some ulterior motives.”

“Oh, don’t pretend like  _ you _ wouldn’t if you were in my situation,” she snorted, stepping forward to accusingly tap his chest plates with her digit. “I want to get off this planet as  _ much _ as you do, so why don’t you ditch bolts-for-brains and work with someone who can actually lend you a servo? 

Swindle almost--  _ almost--  _ considered the offer… but his suspicion outweighed his desire for a more approachable partner. His optics narrowed.

Before either of them could do or say anything else, a horrible screech caught both of their attention. Swindle swung his head to see Waspinator barreling towards them in his organic alt-mode. Blackarachnia hissed before transforming into her own alt-mode and bolting away. Waspinator gave chase for a moment before stopping, transforming, and storming back towards Swindle. He looked pissed. Swindle felt his spark begin to drum.

“What was Crash-bot doing with Spider-bot?!” he snarled as he approached him. “Is Crash-bot working with Spider-bot?!”

“Whoa, take it easy!” Swindle exclaimed and threw up his servos defensively. “She just randomly showed up and started talking to me-- that was it, I  _ swear _ . I didn’t even know she was here until just now!”

Waspinator just stared at him wide, furious optics. Even though Waspinator acted like he was about to tear Swindle limb from limb, Swindle tried his best to remain calm. He knew for sure now that Waspinator knew Blackarachnia and seemed to distrust her immensely. He had every right to be terrified that a bot he was supposed to trust could be working with someone he had a vendetta against.

“I’m not working with her, I promise,” Swindle gently assured him. “Listen, I’ve heard things about Blackarachnia and she doesn’t exactly sound like anyone I’d want to be in cahoots with. You seem like a much more trustworthy bot to work with-- much more likely to _ not _ steal my ship for yourself and leave me stranded here.”

Waspinator hesitated. He then let out what sounded like a sigh and finally relaxed.

“Waspinator is sorry he yelled at Crash-bot,” he murmured, turning his head away from Swindle. “That’s not fair to Crash-bot.”

Swindle offered him a small smile. “You don’t need to apologize. I’d be mad too if I was you.”

“Does Crash-bot want to go back to the ship?” Waspinator softly asked.

“Yeah. That sounds like a good idea,” Swindle replied. “We can just walk-- if that’s okay with you.”

Waspinator nodded before the two started the commute back to the ship. There was a long, awkward silence.

“Crash-bot?”

“Yeah?”

“How about neither Crash-bot or Waspinator leaves the ship alone anymore? Crash-bot and Waspinator will only leave ship together.”

“You know what? That sounds like a great idea. Strength in numbers!”

Waspinator let out a hum of agreement. Another moment of silence passed.

“So, you know her?” Swindle gently asked.

Waspinator hesitated. “Yeah.”

“I’m guessing you two aren’t on good terms.”

Waspinator shifted his shoulders uncomfortably.

“You don’t wanna talk about it?”

“Not really.”

“That’s okay,” Swindle conceded. 

While he did maintain Waspinator’s wishes to not talk about it, Swindle couldn’t stop thinking about the situation. His processor ran wild with possibilities of what could have spurred between them to have Waspinator so clearly frightened of her. All Swindle knew was that it was probably nothing good.


	5. Chapter 5

Swindle had just been woken up to being kicked in the face for the third night in a row.

Waspinator had started recharging more…  _ actively _ after their encounter with Blackarachnia. Thrashing, whimpering, muttering-- Swindle had been woken up multiple times throughout the night because of it. He would’ve been more pissed about it if he wasn’t so exhausted and, if he had to admit, worried. Seeing Blackarachnia had clearly shaken him up. He was quieter and more distant during the day. Not being vocal was sort of normal for him, but not this type of solemn silence with a thousand-yard stare.

Swindle grumbled as he shoved the clawed pede away from his face. The techno-organic had somehow wrestled his way over from the other side of the ship to where Swindle had been recharging. The smaller bot sat up and looked at his companion. He was twitching and muttering again. Swindle rubbed his optics and sighed. He had pieced together by now that his partner was having nightmares. He just wasn’t sure how to address the situation.

Another kick in Swindle’s direction made him make up his mind. He crawled a bit closer to Waspinator and hesitantly placed a servo on his shoulder. Waspinator flinched but didn’t wake up. Swindle gently shook him. 

“Waspinator,” he muttered and shook him a more persistently. “ _ Hey _ . Wake up. You’re just dreaming, you big dumb--”

Swindle shrieked when he was suddenly pinned to the ground. He swallowed hard his gaze met two wide, purple optics. Waspinator snarled something but Swindle couldn’t make it out in the heat of the moment.

“H-hey! It’s okay, it’s just me!” Swindle exclaimed. He tried his best to not panic that such a giant, terrifying bot was completely crushing him into the floor. “Everything’s okay! You were just dreaming a-and I was just trying to wake you up-- which in hindsight, was kind of stupid, I’ll admit!”

Waspinator blinked and then pulled away from Swindle. He shook his helm and finally let the smaller bot go. Swindle scrambled up and away from the other, terrified that there would be another outburst. He was really aiming to get off this planet online and he’d come too far to give up on that dream now.

“Sorry,” Waspinator eventually grumbled. “Waspinator… didn’t know what Waspinator was doing… didn’t mean to hurt Crash-bot.”

“It’s fine. You didn’t hurt me-- just scared me,” Swindle told him, finally relaxing. There was a small moment of silence that passed. “So, do you… want to talk about it?”

Waspinator turned his helm away. “No.”

Swindle pinched his nasal ridge and huffed. “Let me rephrase that: I think we should talk about this. You’ve been having nightmares nearly every night now. That’s not normal and it sure as slag is keeping  _ both  _ of us from getting proper rest.”

“Waspinator can recharge outside if he’s bothering Crash-bot so much,” Waspinator offered, still not looking at Swindle.

“Well, first of all, I’m not going to make you recharge outside like a mechanimal,” Swindle said. “And second of all, that doesn’t solve the issue.”

“Waspinator is fine.”

Swindle rested his helm in his servo. “You can say that all you want but the evidence says otherwise.”

Waspinator hung his head lower. He still refused to look at Swindle.

“Talking about it will make you feel better.”

No reply.

“I know you’ve probably heard that a thousand times but it really does. It can help you process whatever’s bothering you. You’ll be able to think clearly when it’s not plaguing you every nanoklik of the day.”

“Why does Crash-bot  _ care _ ?” Waspinator finally whirled around to stare at Swindle. His sharp, angry optics stood out in the dark of the night. “ _ No one _ cares about Waspinator. Crash-bot should just let Waspinator sleep outside, then Waspinator won’t bother Crash-bot anymore, then Crash-bot and Waspinator can get back to Earth faster and  _ never _ see each other again.”

Swindle grimaced. “ _ Yeesh _ . And here I thought we were starting to become friends. I guess the feeling isn’t mutual.”

“Waspinator doesn’t have friends. No one likes Waspinator.”

“I don’t think you’re all that bad.”

Waspinator spat out a noise that sounded like a scoff.

“I really do!” Swindle exclaimed. “Listen, you could’ve let Blackarachnia kill me the other solarcycle but you didn’t. You could’ve killed me multiple times by now-- but you  _ didn’t _ . You could’ve not helped me with my ship and my pede and brought me as much energon as you have but here you are,  _ still  _ offering to help me.”

Waspinator snorted. “Crash-bot has low standards.”

Swindle couldn’t help but snicker at that. “My dear Waspinator, when you’ve met the kind of bots I’ve met, anyone who shows you mercy is friend material.”

Waspinator’s gaze locked onto the floor. After a moment of two of him staring at the ground in silence, he let out what sounded like a sigh and clambered over to sit next to Swindle. The Decepticon cautiously looked towards him, waiting for something to happen.

“Waspinator used to be Wasp. Wasp was an Autobot,” Waspinator began to explain. It was the softest he had ever spoken.

Swindle shifted a bit closer. “I’m listening.”

“Wasp… wanted to be in the Elite Guard, so Wasp went to boot camp. Wasp was small, weak. Wasp was trying to be more confident… wanted to make something of Wasp’s self. Wasp was doing well. Wasp made a friend, Iron-bot. Wasp…  _ cared  _ about Iron-bot.”

Waspinator stopped. One of his claws tapped in aggravation. 

“But then  _ Bumble-bot _ \--” He shook his helm and snorted. “Bumble-bot framed Wasp-- said Wasp was a traitor, a Decepticon double agent, but Wasp wasn’t! Other bots didn’t listen to Wasp. Sent Wasp to stockades and called Wasp a liar. Wasp managed to escape and went to Earth to get revenge on Bumble-bot, but couldn’t.”

Waspinator hesitated. He seemed to be getting too caught up in his emotions. Swindle’s optic ridges furrowed with worry.

“It’s alright,” he reassured him. “Take your time.”

“Spider-bot took advantage of Wasp.” His voice was quieter now. He seemingly let go of the previous anger that had been bubbling up but not because he had calmed down-- he had just given up. It was pitiful. “Told Wasp that she was Wasp’s friend. Then lied to Wasp and…  _ changed  _ Wasp against Wasp’s will.”

Waspinator’s gaze stayed locked on the floor.

“...It hurt.”

He barely mustered it out and Swindle had barely caught it. He felt a tug on his spark.

“And then you somehow ended up stuck on this planet… with her,” Swindle murmured. Waspinator nodded. “I’m sorry.”

Waspinator blinked. His gaze finally met Swindle’s. He still looked miserable but his optics were wide with surprise.

“None of that was fair to you,” he continued. “You were--  _ are  _ a good bot. You didn’t deserve any of that. I’m sorry it happened to you.”

The techno-organic huffed and turned his helm away again. “Waspinator just doesn’t understand what he did  _ wrong _ \--”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, bud,” Swindle quickly answered, leaning in even closer. “The universe is just cruel like that sometimes; it’s not fair. Maybe this won’t make you feel any better but… Autobots aren’t all the good that they preach to be. Just because they think they’re doing the right thing doesn’t mean that they are and, in my humble opinion, they _really_ didn’t do the right then when it came to you. I’m sorry.”

There was a small pause between Swindle speaking and Waspinator finally turning his helm to look at him. He just stared at the grounder’s face for a moment, just studying it. He eventually sighed and seemed to relax.

“I… hope talking about it helped at least a little bit,” Swindle finally said, breaking the silence. “If you ever need to talk about it again-- or anything at all-- I’m here for you, got it? We’re friends-- no matter what you think-- and that’s what friends do for each other.”

Waspinator half-smiled-- well, Swindle  _ assumed  _ it was a smile. He would’ve thought that after all this time he’d spent with him that he’d be able to figure out what his mandibles were supposed to convey but he  _ still  _ didn’t.

“Thank you,” he simply said.

Swindle blinked, surprised to hear the phrase slip from his intake. He smiled back. “No problem.”

The techno-organic pulled away from Swindle, which only then made him realize how close they had been to each other. The grounder expected him to go back to the other side of the ship where he usually recharged, but to his surprise, Waspinator laid down next to him. He had his back to him but it was the closest he’d ever willingly decided to sleep near him.

_ Progress _ , Swindle pleasantly thought to himself.

Swindle settled down next to Waspinator, resting his back against the other. Waspinator, fortunately, stayed sound asleep for the rest of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posted this later than i intended oops!! sorry y'all!


	6. Chapter 6

Past attempts to ask Waspinator where he retrieved the energon crystals he brought home would always result in silence. It hadn’t bothered Swindle all that much, but he was a curious bot-- he couldn’t be blamed for wondering where his energon came from, especially on such an organic planet. Swindle was reasonably surprised when Waspinator actually invited Swindle to come with him to get energon. Waspinator had been becoming more social with him recently, so maybe that was why… or because of their pact to not leave the ship alone. Either way, Swindle was happy to accompany him.

Swindle decided to stay in his root-mode as they trekked through the dense jungle. There was too much vegetation to comfortably drive, but it also felt nice to just leisurely take a walk with the techno-organic. It was oddly serene.

“Not much further,” Waspinator told him. “Cave's up ahead.”

Swindle looked further into the distance to see the entrance to the cave he was talking about. It was in the side of the giant mountain that stood out no matter where you were on the planet. Swindle had expected it to be full of something, just not energon.

“How’d you find the deposit anyway?” Swindle asked. “Just dumb luck?”

Waspinator shrugged. “Yeah.”

Swindle hummed in acknowledgment. “Does Blackarachnia know about it?”

“Waspinator isn’t sure,” he admitted. “If Spider-bot does know about the deposit, Spider-bot doesn’t leave any trace of Spider-bot’s self.”

Waspinator halted in front of the cave’s entrance. “Is Crash-bot worried about Spider-bot?”

Swindle glanced at him. “Is  _Bitter-bot_ worried about Spider-bot?”

“Waspinator asked Crash-bot first,” he retorted, optics narrowing.

“A little bit, but I got a big strong bot to protect me, so I feel pretty safe,” Swindle said with a grin. “And you, my dear Waspinator?”

“A bit, but Waspinator has a tiny grounder to protect him, so Waspinator feels pretty safe,” he replied, smirking.

Swindle was taken aback. Waspinator chuckled and headed into the cave.

“Oh, so you’re getting  _cheeky_ with me now, huh?!” Swindle exclaimed as he chased after him. He couldn’t help but smile. " _I’m_ the cheeky one here, mister! You got another thing coming if you think you can steal my defining--”

Swindle trailed off as he finally caught up with Waspinator. The cave was large and looming and covered from wall to wall with energon crystals. They were the only light source in the cavern, making everything in it hold a pink hue. It was eerily gorgeous.

“Crash-bot okay?”

“Hm?” Swindle realized he had been staring and shook himself out of his daze. “Sorry. I just haven’t ever seen an energon deposit in person before. It’s prettier than I expected.”

Waspinator took another gaze around. “Yeah. Pretty.”

Swindle stepped aside to kneel down to a cluster of crystals and started breaking pieces off. He pulled open his drawer and stuffed a few servo-fulls of crystals inside. It would hopefully be enough to keep them sustained for a while, but he wouldn’t complain about having to come back again.

Swindle stood back up and walked over to Waspinator who was examining his own cluster of crystals. Waspinator glanced at him and raised an optic ridge.

“Did Crash-bot grab any energon?” he questioned.

Swindle nodded and gestured to his compartment. “They’re in here.”

Waspinator tilted his helm and turned to face Swindle.

“Crash-bot’s… thing,” Waspinator murmured, tapping his chassis with a careful claw. “How does it work?”

Swindle glanced down at himself and then back up at Waspinator. He was almost excited that Waspinator was asking him about things. If only he had been this way when they first met.

“It’s like a subspace but a thousand times better,” Swindle gloated, happily opening it to show it to the other. “I have a transwarp frequency in here that locates to a storage dimension where I keep all my things. So, anytime I want anything, I can just reach in and pull it out of there, and when I want to put something away, I just drop it in and it goes there.”

Waspinator tilted his helm. “How does Crash-bot find anything?”

Swindle shrugged. “I’ve got a system.”

“ _Of course_ Crash-bot does.” Waspinator snickered and then walked past him. “Sun will set soon. Waspinator and Crash-bot should head back to ship before it gets dark.”

“Alright,” Swindle conceded. He took one last look around the cave before following the other out.

Waspinator was watching him over his shoulder as Swindle came out of the cave. Swindle halted and raised an optic ridge at the other.

“Are we going?” he asked.

“Crash-bot’s limping,” Waspinator pointed out, gesturing to his pede.

“Yeah, I limped all the way here if you didn’t notice,” Swindle replied, crossing his arms.

“Crash-bot is limping _more_ ,” Waspinator said with a roll of his optics. “Does Crash-bot hurt?”

“I mean, yeah,” Swindle answered. He experimentally put more weight on his pede and winced. “It starts aching when I use it more like this. It’s fine, though. I’ll probably just be a bit slow.”

Waspinator huffed. Swindle barely had any time to register what was happening before Waspinator had his servos on him and he was off the ground. He initially yelped and squirmed, terrified at the sudden invasiveness, but finally calmed down when Waspinator rested him onto his own back. Swindle reflexively wrapped his arms around the other’s neck and clung onto him for dear life. Once Waspinator started walking, Swindle relaxed.

“Thanks, you big brute,” Swindle said with a huff, leaning his helm against the back of Waspinator’s neck. “A warning would have been  _appreciated_ but the gesture is nice.”

“Sorry,” Waspinator replied, though he didn’t sound all that apologetic.

Swindle, though reluctant to admit it, was all too happy to finally get off his pede. It had been aching quite a bit but he’d been trying to ignore it. Being carried home was a very nice surprise and one that his pede would thank him for.

Swindle ended up dozing off and only reawoke when he was being carefully rested against the floor. He groggily lifted his helm up to see Waspinator laying down on the other side of the ship. He pouted. Call him spoiled, but he and Waspinator had been recharging backstrut-to-backstrut the last couple of nights and he wasn’t ready to give that up yet. He felt warmer and safer when the other was at least near him.

“Waspinator,” he called out, flopping onto his back.

The techno-organic grunted in acknowledgment.

“Get over here.”

“Why?”

“‘Cause I need my cuddle buddy.”

He heard a snort. “ _Cuddle buddy_?”

" _Yes,_  you’re my cuddle buddy now,” Swindle matter-of-factly said, crossing his arms. “Now, could you  _please_ get your aft over here?”

Swindle heard a sigh and then the familiar sound of the techno-organic getting up to his pedes. He cracked open an optic to see Waspinator padding over and dropping down next to Swindle with a huff. Swindle bit back a snicker and closed his optics again, only to open them once more as Waspinator scooted closer, somewhat curling body around his. When Swindle had said he wanted “his cuddle buddy”, he had just been joking around-- he hadn’t been serious about it… but he couldn’t find a reason to complain about their arrangement.

Swindle muttered a “goodnight” and fell into recharge the easiest he had in a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i kind of hate this chapter but like....... its gonna have to do i cant come up with anything better shkfgks  
> sorry about the brief hiatus, i fell behind with my writing! still am more behind than i would like to be but i really wanted to get another chapter out  
> hope y'all enjoy!


	7. Chapter 7

“No way.”

“What?”

_ “ No way! ” _

_ “ What?! ” _

Swindle jumped to his pedes and had to restrain himself from squealing in excitement.

“Oh, thank the Allspark!” he exclaimed. “Whatever greater force is out there-- I will _never_ doubt you again!”

“What is it?!” Waspinator snapped, suddenly behind Swindle and looking over his shoulder.

“The communications system is online!” Swindle eagerly answered. If his pede wasn't so screwed up, he would have been bouncing from pede to pede. “I know it doesn't look pretty, but it's working! The real test is going to be managing to contact anyone, but everything else looks like it's in working order. We should be good to go!”

The tension in Waspinator dissipated and he leaned back, giving Swindle his space again. “Good job, Crash-bot.”

“Why thank you, Bitter-bot,” Swindle replied with a grin. “Let’s still keep expectations low, though. We can hold a celebration in my name after we actually get through to someone.”

“Good luck,” Waspinator muttered before leaving Swindle to his own devices again.

When Waspinator had given him the idea to contact someone to come save them, Swindle immediately thought of one bot. It also helped that it was one of the only frequencies he knew off the top of his helm, but when it came to needing to ask for a favor, there was one bot he always came running to.

Swindle nervously typed in the frequency and felt his spark race as it went through and began ringing the number’s owner. He nervously drummed his digits on the console as he waited for the other side of the call to be picked up.

_ I swear if this is the one time you don’t answer a random frequency, I will-- _

“Who is this and how the slag did you get this frequency?”

Swindle lit up at the sound of the familiarly grouchy voice.

“Lockdown!” he blurted, his optics bright and wide despite the fact that neither of them could see the other. “It’s me, Swindle!”

“Swindle?” Lockdown slowly repeated. He scoffed. “Ain’t you supposed to be in the Autobot stockade?”

“It’s a long story-- wait, how do you know about that?” Swindle shook his helm. “Nevermind. Listen, I’m using a really broken communication system that could give out on me at any moment, so I’m going to have to make this quick. Can you trace this frequency's location?”

“Already have.”

“Great! Can you come get me?”

There was a pause.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Do I ever kid?” Swindle hesitated. “Actually, don’t answer that! Lockdown, bud, I’m in a really rough situation right now that I’d more than happy to tell you about when I see your handsome face  _ in  person _ but right now, I really,  _ really  _ need your help and you know I wouldn’t be saying that unless I meant it. I promise I’d make it worth your while in the long run-- I got a lot of new mods I haven't even had the pleasure to show off to you yet! Plus, c’mon, what are you gonna do without your bestest friend in the whole universe, hm? Are you really gonna let your closest buddy rust away on an organic planet?”

He heard a sigh on the other end of the call.

“I know you can’t see me but I’m doing that really pathetic pleading face that you love right now.”

“First of all, I  _ hate  _ that face and you know it,” Lockdown snapped. “Second of all, fine-- I will come get you but only because you’re my favorite arms dealer.”

“I’m your  _ only  _ arms dealer!” Swindle cried.

“Then you’re automatically my favorite, right?” Lockdown chuckled. Swindle didn’t have to see his faceplate to know he was smirking. “It’ll take me around a solarcycle to get there. Hope that’s soon enough for you.”

“That’s more than enough,” Swindle replied, relaxing. “Thank you, Lockdown.”

“You can thank me after I save your pathetic aft,” he snorted. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you then.”

Swindle dropped down to the floor and sat against the console, sighing in relief. He looked across the ship to see Waspinator staring at him.

“Who was that?” he asked, stalking closer to Swindle. He plopped down in front of him.

“A good friend of mine, Lockdown,” Swindle replied. “He’s a bounty hunter. He’s a bit of a pain in the aft and a jerk but we’ve been really close friends for a long time.”

“Will Crash-bot’s friend help Waspinator too?”

Swindle’s optics went wide at that. He leaned his helm back and huffed.

“Oh, I forgot to mention you, didn’t I?” Swindle muttered, dragging his servos over his face. “I’m sorry, bud. I just got so concentrated on just getting him here that I didn’t even think to mention that you’d be coming with us.”

Waspinator’s optic ridges furrowed together.

“Hey, that doesn’t mean you’re not coming with us, though, okay?” Swindle quickly amended. “Lockdown may be a bit reluctant at first but I promise he’ll take you too. I’ll talk him into it-- I always do!”

“Promise?”

Swindle opened his intake to affirmatively reply but hesitated. He studied Waspinator’s expression for a bit longer than he had before. While he still had a hard time reading his facial features, it didn’t take a genius to see how genuinely nervous and bothered the techno-organic was. Swindle’s optic ridges dipped in worry.

“Yeah, of course I promise,” Swindle finally replied, his voice dropping into something more soft and genuine. “Are you alright? You seem really worked up about something.”

Waspinator turned his helm away. “It’s nothing.”

Swindle frowned. “I doubt that. Come on, we've talked about this before; you can tell me anything. I'm not going to judge you.”

Waspinator huffed. He refused to look at Swindle.

“Waspinator is just worried,” he muttered.

“I gathered that.” Swindle raised an optic ridge. “What are you so worried about?”

“Is Crash-bot or Crash-bot's friend going to help Spider-bot?”

Swindle’s optics widened. He stammered over his words for a moment.

“Why would I  _ ever _ do that?” he finally managed to ask. “Waspinator, I hate her, too. Why would I help her?”

Waspinator grumbled incoherently in reply. His gaze flicked back to Swindle. “What about Crash-bot’s friend?”

“Lockdown cares about two bots in this whole universe and that’s himself and  _ me _ ,” he matter-of-factly said. “He wouldn’t help her because he has no reason to--  _ especially  _ if  _ I  _ told him not to.”

Waspinator didn’t reply and still kept his helm turned away from him. Swindle tried leaning forward to meet Waspinator’s optic, but even when he placed himself right in his line of sight, Waspinator looked anywhere but his face. The smaller bot frowned.

“Hey,” he softly said, trying to regain the other’s attention. “I know it’s hard for you to trust bots, and you have every right not to, but I want you to know that I’m not going to let anything happen to you, okay? Lockdown can be a bit… intimidating but he has no reason to hurt you and I’ll make sure of that-- and if Blackarachnia rears her ugly head before we leave, I’ll make sure she regrets it. I promise.”

It took him a klik, but Waspinator finally looked him in the optics. Another klik passed and Waspinator had rested his head on Swindle’s shoulder. He was hugging him, Swindle finally realized… just in a really weird kind of way. Then again, everything about Waspinator was kind of weird.

Swindle delicately moved his arms to hug Waspinator. The techno-organic didn’t flinch or pull away. They stayed like that for a while, not saying or moving or doing anything else but holding each other.

“Waspinator… appreciates Crash-bot a lot.” His voice was low and soft-- genuine. “Waspinator hasn’t had a real friend in a long time. Waspinator likes being able to… trust Crash-bot. Trusting is still weird, though.”

“Understandably so,” Swindle said with a chuckle. Waspinator finally pulled away but still remained close to him. He actually met his optics for once. “Take your time. I’m not going to get mad at you for it. I can be patient when necessary.”

Waspinator scoffed. “When necessary…”

Both bots flinched as a loud pop interrupted their conversation. Swindle reflexively yelped and jumped into Waspiantor’s arms as more awful sounds of static and sparks filled the usually quiet ship. As the cacophony faded, Swindle realized what the source of the noise was: the communications system had just given out again.

“Are you slagging kidding me?” he cried, jumping out of Waspinator’s arms. “What a piece of scrap!”

Waspinator’s frame rumbled with a laugh. “At least Crash-bot got to call Crash-bot’s friend before it broke?”

Swindle huffed. “I guess so. Useless piece of junk…”

The Decepticon gave the systems a kick. The contraption replied by making another awful noise and sparking at Swindle, making him jump back with a squeak. His gaze darted back to Waspinator when he heard the techno-organic’s half-sparked attempts at holding back laughter.

“What’s so funny?!”

Waspinator erupted into more obvious laughter. Swindle would have gotten onto him about it, but he was far too distracted by the fact that Waspinator was laughing-- genuinely, fully laughing. It was the first time Swindle had ever heard it. For some odd reason, it warmed his spark.


	8. Chapter 8

Swindle woke up with a start-- the first time he’d done so in a long while. He frantically blinked and scrambled to sit up, desperate to understand what had awoken him so suddenly. It took him a moment, but his optics finally caught onto the figure standing in the pseudo-entryway of the ship. A grin split across Swindle’s face as he recognized the looming, spiked shadow.

“Lockdown!” Swindle exclaimed as he clambered up to his pedes to ambush Lockdown with a hug. “You have  _ no idea _ how happy I am to see you!”

“ _ Swindle _ , why the pit were you rechargin’ next to that  _ thing _ ?” Lockdown hissed, completely disregarding Swindle's affection.

The Decepticon turned his helm to see Waspinator had also woken up. His grogginess quickly wore off as he locked optics with Lockdown. The techno-organic jumped up with a loud hiss. Lockdown suddenly grabbed Swindle’s shoulder and pulled him aside, clearly ready for a fight.

“Whoa, whoa! Hey!” Swindle shouted, wrapping his arms around Lockdown’s arm to recapture his attention. “Waspinator is a  _ friend-- _ not a foe!”

Lockdown looked down at him and raised an optic ridge. “That beast is your friend?”

“Waspinator isn’t a beast!” the techno-organic spat.

Lockdown snorted. “Could’ve fooled me.”

“Yeah, I, um… sort of forgot to mention him,” Swindle said with a nervous smile. “But I sort of kind of promised him I’d give him a ride back to Earth so… can he come with us?”

The smile on Swindle’s face grew wider, more pleading. Lockdown sighed and looked away.

“That crash must’ve scrambled your processor,” Lockdown grumbled under his breath, pinching his nasal ridge. “Fine. He can come with but he’s your responsibility.”

Waspinator hissed. “Waspinator isn’t any bot’s responsibility than Waspinator’s!” 

Lockdown looked back down at Swindle. “Does he always talk like that?”

Swindle shrugged. “Yeah.”

“That’s gonna be an ache on the ol’ audials,” Lockdown muttered. “Let’s get moving. The sooner we can get to Earth the sooner I can get back to work.”

“Boy, do I hear you on that!” Swindle laughed. He finally relinquished his grip on Lockdown to motion to Waspinator. “C’mon!”

Waspinator gave Lockdown one more nasty look before hesitantly following the two out of the ship.

**_…_ **

“What’s Crash-bot smiling about?”

Swindle looked up to see Waspinator entering the room. He turned to look out the viewport once more, entranced by the stars passing by.

“I’m just happy,” he dreamily murmured. Waspinator crawled into the berth and flopped down behind him, careful not to knock the smaller bot off. “I missed being on a ship and in a berth and being  _ clean _ .”

Waspinator hummed in acknowledgment. Swindle leaned back on Waspinator, using him as a cushion.

“You holding up okay?” he asked, servo drifting over to pat Waspinator on the helm. “Egh-- are you still  _ wet _ ? I  _ told  _ you to dry off if you were going to use the wash racks.”

“There is a lot of Waspinator to dry off,” he grumbled, swatting his servo away. “If Crash-bot doesn’t like it then Crash-bot doesn’t have to touch Waspinator.”

Swindle chuckled and shook his helm. They laid there for a moment, not exchanging any more words. After a long while of silence, Swindle has assumed Waspinator had started to drift into recharge. He wasn't ready to recharge himself, so he carefully crawled out of the berth. Despite his cautions, Waspinator still awoke.

“Where is Crash-bot going?” the techno-organic groggily asked.

“I'm going to go talk to Lockdown,” Swindle replied. “Don't worry about it. Just get some rest, alright? I'll come back and join you later.”

Waspinator seemed wary at first but fortunately relaxed. He settled down again and closed his optics. Swindle smiled before quietly leaving the spare berthroom.

Swindle immediately headed towards the head of the ship where he found Lockdown, as expected. Lockdown had been messing with the controls but turned to see who had entered. Upon realizing it was Swindle, he turned his helm away again.

“Hey,” he greeted. “Your buggy buddy doing alright?”

“Yup. He's recharging,” Swindle answered. He walked over to the chair next to Lockdown's and rested his servos on it. “Mind if I sit?”

“Be my guest,” Lockdown replied. He watched as Swindle plopped down in the chair, twisting his body around to hang his pedes off the arm of it. Lockdown frowned as he looked down at Swindle's mangled one. “The insect do this?”

“What? No!” Swindle exclaimed. “It happened when the pod crashed. Waspinator would never lay a claw on me.”

“You're lucky you got off scot-free. That crash could've killed you,” Lockdown murmured. “You're lucky in general for getting away from the Autobots in the first place. I thought you were gone for good.”

Swindle rested his helm in his servo. “How did you know about me getting captured anyway?”

“I was working for some Elite Guard scum on Earth and caught wind of it,” the bounty hunter grumbled. “I would've saved your sorry aft if they hadn't gotten to you first.”

Swindle perked up. Lockdown met his optics as a huge smile grew on his face. Lockdown sighed and rolled his optics. “Don't get any--”

“Aw, Lockdown!” Swindle cooed. He playfully kicked at the other. “You're so  _ sweet-- _ ”

“Shut  _ up _ , Swin,” Lockdown snapped, grabbing at his pedes but missing as Swindle frantically pulled them away. The Decepticon continued to snicker.

Lockdown turned his helm away again and a silence fell over them for a few kliks. Swindle continued to smile at him, swinging his unwounded pede back and forth.

“What’s up with Wasp-- whatever his name is, by the way?” Lockdown asked. “You really letting him hitch a ride with us out of the kindness of your spark?”

Swindle shrugged. “Yeah. I wasn’t planning on it at first but he’s grown on me and he sort of… deserves some generosity. Plus, he’s kind of endearing once you get to know him-- not that I expect you to find him appealing.”

Lockdown snorted. “You just get along with anyone who ain’t trying to kill you.”

“Hey, at least I get along with more than just  _ one  _ bot,” Swindle teased.

“I don’t need anyone else besides myself,” Lockdown muttered. “And sometimes you.”

“You’re being all sweet again!” Swindle cried. “How can you expect me to not make a big deal out of it when you keep doing it?”

“If I admit that I’m glad that you’re safe and online will you shut up about it?”

Swindle paused, shocked at the vulnerability in that. Lockdown wasn’t exactly infamous for his sincerity, so Swindle took it where he could get it. “Sure.”

“I’m glad you’re safe and online,” Lockdown spat out. “There. Now we can move on.”

Swindle snickered. “I’m glad to see you too, bud.”

“Didn’t I just say that we’re moving on from this sappy bullshit?”

“Sorry, sorry!”

“Anyways,” Lockdown grumbled. “You should be careful when you get to Earth. Get off as soon as you can-- and get that pede checked out, too.”

“That’s the plan,” Swindle replied. “I’m not staying there any longer than necessary.”

“How about your friend?”

Swindle opened his intake to reply but stopped himself. He had somehow forgotten that the whole reason Waspinator wanted to go to Earth was to get revenge on the Autobots there. Originally, Swindle had been all for it, but that had been before he knew about Waspinator’s history with them. His tank stirred uncomfortably.

“Well…” Swindle huffed. He pinched his nasal ridge. “He wanted to stay there. Something to do with those Autobots.”

Lockdown’s optics widened. “That sounds like a terrible idea. Those ‘bots are nothing but trouble-- and that’s saying something coming from me.”

“Yeah.” Swindle nodded in agreement. “I’m… going to try to change his mind, I think.”

Lockdown raised an optic ridge. “You gonna take him with you?”

“I don’t know,” Swindle admitted. “I haven’t got that far. I… guess we’ll see.”

“Be careful if you take him, alright? I don’t want to come save your aft again once he freaks out and tries to kill you.”

Swindle frowned. “He’s not going to do that. He’s nice, really.”

Lockdown gave an apprehensive grunt in reply. “He's a brute, Swin.”

Swindle got out of his chair and placed a servo on Lockdown’s shoulder, leaning in close. “Y’know, a lot of bots say pretty similar things when I tell them that you’re my amica.”

Lockdown rolled his optics. Swindle just chuckled.

“Well, I’m exhausted. I’m going to go recharge,” the Decepticon replied, stretching his arms over his helm. “If I’m not up by the time we’re a few kliks away, come wake me up.”

“Alright.”

Swindle muttered a ‘goodnight’ before turning on his heel to leave. He stopped as he felt Lockdown grab his arm. His gaze darted back to the other.

“Hey,” Lockdown softly said. “I really was worried about you and I really am glad you’re okay. I’m… sorry I couldn’t have saved you in the first place.”

Swindle smiled and leaned into Lockdown’s touch. “It’s alright. I really appreciate the thought, though.”

Lockdown offered him a smile back and brush his thumb along Swindle’s arm. The Decepticon stared at him for a klik, just taking a moment to enjoy the exchange.

Then a smirk formed on Lockdown’s face. Swindle felt his spark lurch.

“But I have to ask, were you  _ really  _ stuck in your alt-mode?”

Swindle scoffed and ripped his arm away from Lockdown. “Leave it to you to ruin a moment!”

“Well?! Were you?”

“I’m  _ literally never  _ speaking to you again!”

“C’mon, Swin, don’t be like that!”

Swindle stormed out of the head of the ship and trudged his way back to the guest room he and Waspinator were occupying. Waspinator lifted his helm for a moment when he heard Swindle enter but laid back down again when he realized it was him. Swindle turned off the lights and went to crawl into the berth with the techno-organic. It was a bit cramped but Swindle couldn't complain.

“By the way, you're officially not the biggest pain in my aft,” Swindle murmured as he settled down. “Lockdown stole your title.”

Waspinator grumbled in reply. He turned over and moved to rest his helm under Swindle’s chin. Swindle smiled and pressed himself against Waspinator. With his newly acquired “cuddle buddy” and a cozy berth, Swindle found it easier than ever to recharge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry that it took so long for me to update!! my life just got hectic and i (unfortunately) had more important things to worry about than this fic, but im definitely still sticking with it and not giving up on it!!!  
> thank you for reading!! ;w;


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